I-SSGW delay vexes bidders, puts pressure on delivery

More than two years after first advertising its requirement for a stopgap anti-ship missile to replace the soon-to-retire Harpoon Block 1C, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has still to formally invite bids from industry.

HMS Montrose fires a Harpoon Block1C anti-ship missile. The MoD has still yet to start the competition for an Interim Surface-to-Surface Weapon to succeed Harpoon. (Royal Navy/Crown Copyright)

The delay in kicking off the GBP200 million (USD278 million) Interim Surface-to-Surface Guided Weapon (I-SSGW) competition has caused frustration among the potential candidates, while at the same time narrowing the window for delivery of the new long-range anti-surface warfare (ASuW) capability ahead of the December 2023 out-of-service date (OSD) for Harpoon and the associated GWS60 ship system. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Raytheon, and Saab are all expected to vie for the contract.

Failure to procure a new missile in time would leave the Royal Navy (RN) without a heavyweight ASuW weapon. Harpoon is nominally fitted to the RN's 13 Type 23 frigates and three out of its six Type 45 destroyers: however, no Type 45 has recently deployed with Harpoon and not all Type 23s are currently deploying with the system.

In March 2019 the MoD's Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation released a prior information notice (PIN) stating its intention to acquire a ship-launched over-the-horizon precision anti-ship capability with an additional terrain-following precision maritime land attack capability. It added that the I-SSGW capability would be fitted to five Type 23 (towed array) frigates capable of concurrent anti-submarine warfare and ASuW operations as part of the UK's Maritime Task Group.